Valuing Project Achieve

Introduction After years as a teacher and principal frustrated by the inability to effectively track school and student progress, Stacey Boyd and HBS classmate Mandy Lee founded Project Achieve, an information management system for schools. In a quickly changing industry with fast-moving competitors, Project Achieve aimed to use leading-edge technology to reduce the workload of teachers and administrators while simultaneously keeping parents and students aware of performance. In an attempt to raise capital from an array of investors, Boyd needed to assess the firm’s value before moving forward. _Project Achieve’s Competitive Advantage_

Project Achieve hopes to differentiate itself from its competitors via its emphasis on a completely web-based product and its founder’s knowledge of schools and teachers, its two main competitive advantages. As the first mover amongst entirely web-based products, Project Achieve hopes to gain significant market share before imitations of its products appear. Being entirely web-based, the system was created in a standardized manner to allow numerous schools to have the capability to use the system and get support simultaneously. In short, the firm’s products are especially scalable. The company will also collect tremendous amounts of information on students, creating yet another potential revenue stream from advertisers and content providers. Potentially, Project Achieve could evolve into the nerve center for schools. With high switching costs, such a position could be attractive to content providers and other potential acquirers. Compared to NCS’s SASI and ABACUS, Project Achieve has a more integrated web-based design and most importantly, is cheaper. Additionally, Project Achieve features an easier template and user-friendly interface compared to similar systems like IMSeries. With the potential to be used by administrators, teachers, parents, and students, Project Achieve could possibly become the platform for distance learning and communication among the aforementioned parties. This partly rests upon Boyd’s ability to gauge the technology needs in academia. Luckily, Boyd’s knowledge of the space is one of the firm’s competitive advantages. Unfortunately, the company’s technological advantages will probably be short-lived after the product hits the market, since competitors are likely to imitate Project Achieve and also move to entirely web-based products. Additionally, the firm’s marketing strategy depends heavily on the support of governors, but it is questionable whether the firm has the necessary lobbying resources to gain their support. We also question the firm’s ability to entice schools to buy its fee-based program without a sales force. Comparable Company Analysis

Based on Exhibit 3 from the case, Project Achieve has nine public companies that can be indentified as comparable. Project Achieve’s closest comparable companies are Click2learn.com, Learn2.com, and Vcampus. These companies are most similar to Project Achieve in that they are all primarily online learning and training courseware. In addition, these three companies are relatively new in the marketplace with the oldest company, Learn2.com, going public mid-year 1994. Finally, these three companies have little to no debt, similar to Project Achieve’s reliance on internal funding. Boyd can use her research on comparable companies in her valuation of Project Achieve to calculate Project Achieve’s beta. The comparable companies could also be used in a multiples-based valuation analysis. Unfortunately we don’t have a complete set of data for each firm’s number of subscribers, otherwise we could have done a valuation based on value per subscriber. _Project Achieve’s Discount Rate_

Boyd should use a discount rate of 19.0% in her valuation of Project Achieve. This rate was determined using Achieve’s three most comparable companies, Click2learn.com, Learn2.com, and Vcampus. These comparables’ equity betas...

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...Evaluation of Financial Information Syllabus (Subject to minor changes) Spring 2012 Prof. Anna Scherbina
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Tel: 530.754.8076 e-mail: ascherbina@ucdavis.edu
We will learn how to use financial information to value firms, projects, and securities in a wide variety of industries, including real estate. The course will be based entirely on the Harvard Business School case studies and will focus on learning techniques of financial analysis, selecting an appropriate valuation model, analyzing the quality of financial data, finding an appropriate discount rate, and forecasting financial variables and cash flows. Corporate Finance course is strongly suggested as a prerequisite. Consult with faculty if this can be waived.
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Questionnaire
Dear respondent,
I m a student of “Bhagwan mahavir college of business administration, surat” conducting a survey for my project preparation, as the requirement of partial fulfilment of subject project in third year(semester-VI) BBA in surat city of a study on “A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON BRITANNIA AND PARLE COMPANY IN SURAT CITY (A SURVEY ON BISCUIT )” I assure that the information given by you are strictly used for academic purpose only. I request you to help me in gathering information by filling up yhe following information.
Thank you,
Abhishek sojitra
Bhagwan mahavir business administration
Top of Form
1) Do you eat biscuit?
Yes
No
2) Select your likely tastes for biscuit?
Sweet
Salty
Sweet & Salty
Cream biscuit
Others
3) What type of biscuit you normally prefer?
Branded
Bakery product
4) How often do you eat biscuit?
Once in a week
Once in a month
Once in a fortnight
Alternate days
Every day
5) When do you have biscuit?
At breakfast time
At evening
Any time
6) Which brand you normally buy?
Britannia
Parle
Both
Other:
7) From where do you buy biscuit?
Provisional store
Hawkers
Convenience store
Other:
8) Out of the following brand which...

...Harvard Business School
9-298-092
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Valuing Capital Investment Projects
1.
Growth Enterprises, Inc. (GEI) has $40 million that it can invest in any or all of the four
capital investment projects, which have cash flows as shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1
Comparison of Project Cash Flows* ($ thousands)
Year of Cash Flow
Project
A.
B.
C.
D.
Type of
Cash Flow
Year 0
Investment
Revenue
Operating expenses
($10,000)
Investment
Revenue
Operating expenses
($10,000)
Investment
Revenue
Operating expenses
($10,000)
Investment
Revenue
Operating expenses
($10,000)
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
$21,000
11,000
$15,000
5,833
$17,000
7,833
$10,000
5,555
$11,000
4,889
$30,000
15,555
$30,000
15,555
$10,000
5,555
$5,000
2,222
*
All revenues and operating expenses can be considered cash items.
Each of these projects is considered to be of equivalent risk. The investment will be
depreciated to zero on a straight-line basis for tax purposes. GEI’s marginal corporate tax
This case was prepared as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an
administrative situation. Problem 1 appears in the case, “Introduction to Investment Evaluation Techniques” (HBS case
no. 285-115) by Professor Dwight B. Crane and was revised for inclusion in this case. Problems 3 and 4 appear in the case,
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...CASE 2:
VALUING CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROJECTS
CORPORATE FINANCE
GROUP Y
Growth Enterprises, Inc
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...company. On the other hand, the key entrepreneurial managers are likely to be locked up for several years through employment contracts, often also losing management independence. Hence, depending on the goals and circumstances of the entrepreneurs, this option may be potentially unwelcome by entrepreneurial managers.
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INTRODUCTION
The Project assigned to me was “A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTIOIN REGARDING AFTER SALES SERVICES OF MAHINDRA&MAHINDRA AT SUTARIA AUTOMOBILES SERVICE CENTRE, IN BELGAUM DIST”.
This study will help me to find and customer satisfaction level of the customer for authorized M&M service station in Belgaum dist, To know the reason for decline of customers at service station, To know the perception of customers regarding the charges or rates offered by the service station and To know any suggestion from customers to improve the service station.
The study is scheduled through primary data and other information thereby preparing Questionnaire, which focus of various variables, and attributes that are important to know the satisfaction level and the factors affecting the purchase decision.
The survey caused in the Belgaum Dist with the sample size of 100.The collected data are tabulated and analyzed data and all suggestions are given according to the analyzed data graphs and charts are used to illustrate the statistical data and findings.
INTRODUCTION ABOUT AUTOMOBILES INDUSTRY:
History and development of Automobiles also marks the dynamism in technological growth men have achieved. From the days of horseless carriages to the modern-age self-guided automobiles that are designed meticulously using cutting-edge...